I’m not gonna lie about this but I’ve literally said for years that if you: cut working hours; try and eliminate all meetings except for those that are absolutely necessary: and talk to people online rather than in person/phone that your productivity would shoot through the roof and once again I’ve been proven absolutely correct thanks to this Microsoft experiment over in Japan.

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The technology company decided to implement the ‘Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019’ which saw their employees take off five consecutive Fridays in August without losing any pay or any days of annual leave. Meetings were shortened to a maximum of 30 minutes and online chats were prioritised over face to face ones.

And guess what? The company reported that there was an increase of 40% in productivity per employee, judged by how many sales were made over that period. There was also 23% less electricity consumed and 59% more pages printed than at the same period as last year, meaning that the company also saved considerable money during this period as well.

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Microsoft Japan president and CEO Takuya Hirano said the following:

Work a short time, rest well and learn a lot. It’s necessary to have an environment that allows you to feel your purpose in life and make a greater impact at work.

I want employees to think about and experience how they can achieve the same results with 20 percent less working time.

Well there you go. Seems like a complete no brainer that this is the model of employment that we should be utilising in the future, but it’ll probably come into practice one day before I retire the way it takes so long for anything to happen in this country.

Maybe our children will get to reap the benefits of it, although I can’t really see that happening either, despite numerous examples like this of why it’s a good idea. So it goes.

For more of the same, check out these researchers also agreeing that it’s a way better idea. Just look at the science guys.